Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Last night we had a very scary event happen that made for a long night. After the boys went to bed Ben and I went to the basement to wrap gifts. The dogs came with us because they always want to be where we are. Ben reminded me there was a tray of rat poison behind the futon so we had to keep an eye on the dogs which was easy because they just laid on the futon with us. After a while Ben went upstairs to take a shower and both dogs went with him. I went into the laundry room to switch laundry into the dryer and move gifts around. After that I sat back down and started wrapping some more. I heard a weird noise and realized it was Batman doing something under the futon. I yelled his name and he came running out licking his lips. He had been eating the rat poison!! I ran upstairs to get Ben and he looked at the tray only to find out Batman had eaten about half of the tray! I started to freak out and worry because I have only heard of horrible stories with dogs eating rat poison. We searched online and found the local ER vet and I immediately took Batman over there. They took him in the back and immediately gave him an injection to induce vomiting. After a while the vet came in to talk to me. She said he vomited up quite a bit of the poison, but since we had no way of telling exactly how much he ate she was also going to give him charcoal. Then she said he would be sent on home Vitamin K for 1 month to help prevent or reverse any bleeding. Rat poison is bad for animals because in about 36-48 hours it causes them to bleed internally and eventually die if not treated immediately. The vet said since we brought Batman in within 45 minutes of him eating the poison they were able to get most (if not all) of it out of his system and started on the Vitamin K so he should be OK. I was so relieved! I finally got home with Batman around 1am, but had trouble sleeping because I could only think about the worst and continually checked on him throughout the night. Needless to say, Ben picked up the rat poison and threw it out (even the un-used trays) and it will no longer be in our house. No matter how careful you are something bad can always happen! Today Batman is acting like himself and no signs of issues, but we will keep a close eye on him as well as give him the tablets twice a day for 1 month.

After a restless night with little sleep I got up and got our day started around 7:30am. Harford County schools had a 2-hour delay so Ryder's speech session and group session were cancelled for the day. I decided the boys and I would make a trip to WalMart just to get us out of the house for a little bit. I was surprised how calm WalMart was and there was no wait at the check-out. I found a nativity set, some tissue paper, and window clings that I bought. We then headed home.

Once we got home the boys had a snack and started to run around and play. Ryder was running from the kitchen into the living room and tripped. I reached to catch him, but was not quick enough and he hit the metal futon frame. After holding him and cuddling for a few minutes the crying stopped and all was good again. About 10 minutes later I noticed the giant black & blue knot on the corner of his eye. It has been growing in size the last 30 minutes, but seems to have stopped now. He doesn't seem to mind it until I try to mess with it. I tried to get some pictures, but none of them really turned out well and showed what he actually looks like in real-life. Here are a few of my attempts....

It seems like the pictures were either too bright or too dark or he was moving too much. These pictures make it look like nothing is really there, but there is a big bump on the corner of his eye by the eye brow. Hopefully it will get better soon and it doesn't get too swollen!

I am beginning to feel like I need to put these boys into a bubble for the rest of their toddler years!